$50M uptown Embassy Suites could go vertical in 2014

CHARLOTTE — A new Embassy Suites hotel could start rising out of the ground in uptown Charlotte by the beginning of 2014, according to a company official for BPR Properties, the developer of the $50 million, 200,000-square-foot project.

Birju Patel, a principal for BPR and Patel Construction, both based in Greensboro, said it would take 18 months for the hotel to be built. Patel Construction will build the hotel.

The Embassy Suites is planned for a site on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard between Brevard and Caldwell streets. Patel said BPR bought the property about two weeks ago.

An African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church will have to be torn down to make way for the hotel, Patel said, adding that demolition might take about a month. Once the church is demolished, site-preparation work will begin, probably in the third quarter, he said.

The hotel is expected to have 230 suites, 7,500 square feet of conference space and up to 7,000 square feet of retail, Patel said. Plans also call for the project to have a parking deck.

BPR has been scouting uptown Charlotte for two years, trying to find the best location for a hotel, he said. The church site is attractive because of its proximity to the Charlotte Convention Center, he said.